The Long and Winding Road to Dawn
by Stargazerlily93
Summary: For Riku, the road to dawn was longer than you can imagine, and had far too many twists and turns to count. Luckily, no matter how alone in the world he feels, there is always someone there for him, wanting him to succeed, and loving and caring for him no matter what. Basically a short series of snapshots of Riku as he grows, overcomes, and develops into his full potential.
1. The Day he Turned Eight

Sora was definitely Riku's best friend on the whole of Destiny Islands.

This was in large part because Sora and Kairi (the new girl who he had only met once but who had been super duper nice) were the only ones besides his parents who smiled when they saw him. Today in particular looked like was going to be a lonely day for Riku. Sora hadn't been waiting for him like he usually was when Riku had arrived bright and early, super excited because today was the day he was going to be old enough to row them both out to the small island on his own. His Dad had said so. That was the best part of turning 8 years old when your only real friend was so forgetful he couldn't even remember your birthday.

But Riku didn't mind. He knew he had gotten up early today. In fact the sun hadn't even turned its usual yellow/white color yet. Currently, it was still a peachy orange color and so low in the sky that Riku felt like he might actually be able to climb on top of it, if he could only get close enough to reach it before it got any higher. He would have to remember to talk to Sora about this new adventure idea when he found him.

Ever since the man from the outside world with the big key-sword-thing had told Riku his secret, Riku hadn't been able to stop thinking about what adventures existed on the other side of the sunrise and what people were like outside of the islands.

Both the secret man and the blue haired woman had been kind like Sora. Though unlike Sora, they had both been from the outside world.

That must mean people from the outside world were nicer.

Kairi was also from the outside world and had arrived shortly before the secret man and blue haired woman. She didn't think Riku's hair was scary either. She even told him she liked it when she asked him if they could be friends too (Sora had already asked her if she wanted to be friends with him). Riku hadn't answered yet because she was a girl, but inside his head he already considered her a friend.

The outside people wouldn't give Riku weird looks that lasted way too long and made him squirm.

They wouldn't whisper about him and tell their kids not to trust Riku or be his friend.

They wouldn't push him down the stairs or tell him he couldn't come in by himself when he went to the ice cream shop without Sora or his parents.

Sora and his family were the only ones from Destiny Islands who didn't think Riku was bad or scary just because he looked like the boy who had left a long time ago.

Riku had never seen the boy. He had left waaaaayyy before Riku or even Riku's Mom and Dad were even born. But people were always whispering about how he had the same color of hair and so must be the same kind of person. All Riku really knew was from the day his parents sat him down and told him about his ancestor. That sometimes people in their family had silver hair instead of black. That this wasn't a bad thing but people on Destiny Islands were still scared because the last person to have the silver hair had been really mean before he suddenly left, never to be seen or heard from again.

Riku had learned to ignore the stories by now. But it still hurt whenever the kids at school would ask him if he had killed any animals yet or when he was going to lock them up and do scary experiments on them. Or worst, tell him to just disappear already before he could cause trouble like the last boy.

And today was no exception from the nervous, angry, or disappointed looks and skirting out of his path even the adults gave him as he walked down Main Street looking for Sora.

Well, kind of looking for Sora. In reality Riku did his best to keep his head down and his eyes on the ground. He even hunched his shoulders to try and make himself look smaller. His most recent growth spurt seemed to only have given people more reason to be scared of him.

He really was just trying to get to the other side of town where Sora's family lived, to see if Sora was awake yet.

That was when he heard someone call his name. He couldn't help the instinctive jerk of his head toward the sound, even though if it was being shouted at him, it usually was accompanied by someone telling him to stop being so creepy or something.

Instead he was greeted with the smiling face and dark red hair of Kairi.

"Good morning Riku!" She yelled, her hand waving above her head so vigorously her whole body rocked with it. She took off from her place beside the Mayor and ran over to Riku, seemingly oblivious to the looks of astonishment and concern people were giving her.

Upon arrival to an arm's length in front of Riku, Kairi jumped to a halt, feet burrowing slightly into the loose sandy soil of the island.

"Morning Kairi." Riku murmured in response, feeling all eyes on the two of them, and painfully aware of the heavy silence now having fallen across the street.

"Sora said your birthday was today! So I made you something. I found these shells and they looked like your eyes so I turned them into a bracelet for you. I have to go now. Mr. Mayor is going to take me up to the school today so I can get signed up for class. I am going to be in the same grade as Sora! Isn't that exciting? Sora says you are one grade above us. Lucky! Well anyway, happy birthday Riku!" She said all this in one excited go, without so much as slowing down for breath to give Riku a chance to respond.

In fact, it wasn't until she was already running back to the shop the Mayor was in front of that Riku noticed she had already tied the bracelet around his wrist.

The teeny, aquamarine shells were shaped kind of like clam shells and they had even tinier holes poked through their centers so that when they were strung together with what looked to be a piece of fishing line, they fit snugly into each other, inside to outside, each cupping the next.

Yep. Kairi was definitely his friend too.

Riku hadn't realized how long he had been standing there, transfixed by his new treasure, until he got shoved to the ground by a body larger than his passing by just too close and too roughly to have been an accident.

Looking up he saw Wakka, the neighborhood tough kid (aka. the Mayor's son) give him his signature smile. The one that made it impossible to tell if those on the receiving end were being welcomed or made fun of.

"Hey freak. Hands off the new girl. Just cause she's a weirdo too doesn't mean you can let it go to your head. But she's my responsibility now so just don't go all psycho on her and we'll be cool, alright man?" He said, his tone switching from mocking to threatening at surprising speed.

"Yeah. As if I'm the one she needs protecting from. I'm not a monster, okay? Yeesh." Riku retorted as he stood up and tried to wipe the sand from his clothes, ignoring the sting from the new scrapes across his palms, knowing it was no use and that he would be shaking the miniscule grains from his clothes for the rest of the day.

"Yeah yeah. Whatever, psycho. Just mind your own business." Wakka declared, signaling the definite end to the conversation.

Riku turned to walk away, but used his bangs to hide the fact that he was keeping a cautious eye on the older boy as he tried to put distance between them. He was surprised to find that unlike the usual glares of disgust he got from Wakka, instead today's stare was replaced with one of wary curiosity. Maybe it was Kairi's doing? Riku didn't know. All he knew was that he didn't want to push it and risk another "lesson" from the kid like last time.

"Hey freak!" Wakka shouted right after Riku had figured it safe to return his gaze to the ground.

Riku didn't say anything. He just resigned himself to the fact that he had not, in fact escaped in time like he had hoped and, mustering up what dignity he could, turned to fully face the older boy and look him straight in the eye. If there was one thing Riku knew for certain, now more than ever, it was that the friendships he had weren't wrong, and he wouldn't willingly give either of them up without a fight.

But Wakka wasn't moving toward him like he had expected. He was just standing there, same curious expression on his face.

"You're heading the wrong way, ya know. Sora said he was going to look for you down by the pier." Then, with a nod as if to assure himself that he had done right, Wakka turned on his heel and bolted off down toward the gym.

Now Riku was just as confused as ever.

But this birthday was turning out to be surprisingly good. Though the day was still early, he reminded himself.

Deciding to hope that his luck would hold out, he chose to trust that Wakka's suggestion was genuine and that it was indeed Sora, and not a trap waiting for him at the pier as he turned to head back the way he came.

On the walk back, he kept catching himself looking up and around more, and at his own feet less than he had grown accustomed to. Which was in equal parts a curse and a blessing. This meant that he actually had to watch as people purposefully avoided him. But this also meant that when he got within sight of the pier, he could see Sora's spiky brown hair running around back and forth, popping in and out of view on the other side of the sandbank that lined this side of the island.

Riku didn't say anything as he approached, and, seeing as his clothes were already sandy, he opted for just sitting and watching as Sora apparently wandered in windy circles back and forth across the beach. Stopping every so often to draw on a piece of paper with the crayon in his hand or to rub some sort of pattern in the sand.

This went on for a good five minutes before Sora, finally having stopped and was now just surveying his apparent handiwork, noticed Riku.

"RIKU!" Sora shouted, tripping over his own feet and tumbling to the sandy ground in Riku's direction before hopping back up, paper still unscathed and smile still as big as ever.

"Good morning Sora." Riku spoke, trying and failing to stop the chuckle from escaping him at his friend's expense.

It was okay though because Sora was laughing too.

"Happy Birthday to Riku!" Sora shouted at the top of his lungs, arms bolting into the air, his voice going even higher and squeakier than it already was.

"Heh. Thank you Sora!" Riku returned, standing up, his smile widening at the look of excitement from his best friend. "Wanna go out to the small island? My dad says I am old enough now to row the boat on my own!" Riku's fists clenching in excitement as he met Sora half way.

"Uh-huh! But first you must find your present!" Sora half sang, causing Riku's eyebrow to raise in curiosity.

"Here's your map! I made it all by myself! Now go find your treasure! My dad helped me make that." Sora explained.

Who wouldn't want to use a treasure map to hunt down their very own treasure? Riku's face lit up and he couldn't help the very un-grownup sounding giggle that slipped out in his excitement as he took the map from Sora's outstretched hand.

It was great. Even if all of the "landmarks" were stick drawings in the sand, and the location of the treasure was obvious from the get go thanks to the singular, unnatural looking mound in the sand, with the suspicious pile of branches crowning it. But none of that mattered, because, with Sora on his heels, Riku carefully studied his map and made sure to visit every landmark so as to properly earn his treasure.

Once he reached the mound, Sora couldn't stand the excitement any longer and shoved a key in Riku's hand before dashing in front of him to toss away the branches, revealing the top of the small trunk Sora kept in his room. Together they dug it out of it's mound in the sand to reveal a lock that had been put on it. Riku, with as much pomp and circumstance he could muster (which he figured was only slightly less than what the occasion called for) ceremoniously unlocked the trunk and opened it.

And what was inside was better than gold. There, just barely able to fit longways in the box were two, handmade wooden swords.

Sora and Riku were always playing pirates, which was probably how Sora knew to make a treasure map in the first place, but they had always just used whatever sticks they could find when it inevitably came time to swordfight.

Gingerly, and without so much as a word, Riku leaned in and withdrew the swords. He admired them for a long moment. Their beautiful (basic) craftsmanship and high quality materials (leftover wood from when Sora's dad had fixed the bridge between the two smaller islands) left Riku genuinely speechless.

He just looked from the weapons to Sora and back again, unsure of which he wanted to look at more. He was kind of worried that Sora would be upset by his lack of thanks but he really just didn't have the words.

Thankfully, Sora knew Riku well enough to understand the extra sparkle in his eyes and the unconscious biting of his bottom lip and as they stood there, Sora's smile just grew into a grin.

After a bit, Riku's world sprang into motion again and he launched into action. Tossing one sword to Sora, he bolted toward the awaiting boat, calling to Sora over his shoulder.

"Race ya! Last one to the boat has to walk the plank!" He yelled through his now giddy laughter. Riku didn't have to look to know his best friend was where he always was, only one step behind him the entire way.


	2. The Day he Ended

Sora and his blindingly bright smile was the one guiding light Riku had to keep him sane in this godforsaken dark.

Riku didn't know what he expected the realm of darkness to be, but whatever he had been thinking was wrong. From the moment he landed on that desolate walkway, the darker than black abyss stretched out in every direction around him. Riku could feel the abyss, unsatisfied with it's seemingly impenetrable hold on everything else in existence here trying to swallow him too. As bad as it sounded, it wasn't a particularly unpleasant feeling. If he was being honest, it was just more of the same dull, almost deadening ache he had grown used to over the past year or so. However, if Riku knew anything, he knew he wasn't about to give up what little of himself he had just gotten back after so long. If this new, anxious, pitiful excuse for a person even counted. Riku needed to know that his friends were safe.

It was the moment he made that decision that Riku first heard a voice calling to him from the abyss. He was positive he had never met the owner of the voice, but apparently the voice not only knew Riku but had been trying to reach out to him for some time. Riku's first instinct was to be wary of this new voice. Over the past year, he had learned the hard way never to trust such things as faceless voices promising Riku what he wanted to hear.

Instead of giving him the answer to his question, though, the voice told Riku to figure out where his friends were himself. So Riku, figuring he had nothing to lose in listening to the voice, turned inward for the first time in years. It took him a moment, but eventually he was able to find the subdued voice of his own heart, and lo and behold, there was Sora, clear as day, running toward him with that idiotic grin. What Sora was so excited about, Riku couldn't fathom. But what mattered was that not only was Sora okay, but he was happy and (the selfish side of Riku happily noted) heading in his direction. And if Sora was happy, Kairi was okay too.

Deciding he didn't have very many other options, Riku chose to listen to the random, squeaky voice sounding around him out of the darkness. After unsuccessfully scouring each direction for a landmark that would cue him in on where to head, Riku walked in a random direction for what felt like forever.

It was during that slice of forever, between first arriving in the realm of darkness and finally meeting the owner of the voice, that Riku first felt the true power of darkness.

Up until that point, it had been everyone else who had suffered at the hands of Riku's darkness.

But that simple truth in and of itself was the biggest reason that here, where darkness of all kinds reigned supreme, Riku found himself at its mercy (or lack thereof as it were).

The heartless, although they no longer obeyed him, instead opting to tear into him at every opportunity, were of no consequence to Riku. They quickly became so unmemorable that in later years, Riku found himself unable to recall any of the specific dwellers of the darkness.

It was the never ending darkness and silence that got to Riku. The darkness suffocated him while the silence, so loud Riku's mind made imagined enemies out of the thud of his own steps and the swish of his own hair and clothes, left him shivering.

It was the breath of the heartless on his neck, materializing directly behind him, and sending him to the ground, knees giving out, before they even attacked.

It was the uniform view of nothingness that gave Riku's mind free reign to play havoc on it's owner. Allowing far too easily believable fantasy to seep into nightmarish reality.

All it took the first time he broke was to mistake one of the smaller heartless on the ground for a puppet he once knew. It was only for an instant, but it was enough to freeze him where he stood. His behaviour so odd the heartless actually stopped attacking. Whether that was due to the falter he felt within his heart or not, Riku never found out.

But it had only been later that Riku had realized the heartless had stopped.

In that moment, the near oblivion of the world around him had somehow morphed into the Grand Hall of Maleficent's castle. All the nightmares seemed to congregate there.

He had been putting off returning to the castle, following Sora into Halloween Town in hopes that he could find some sort of replacement for the puppet he had let slip through his fingers because Sora was too stubborn and ignorant to accept that sacrifices had to be made to get Kairi and her heart back. But when his search yielded nothing of use to him, Riku had begrudgingly reported back to Maleficent, empty handed.

She made sure he would never again disappoint her in such a fashion. For she was trying to give him what he wanted. How could he be so pitiful that he couldn't even handle such a simple task as collecting a bundle of wood that just so happened to have a heart?

That was why she had to teach him his lesson

That was why, with a flash of green flame, his clothes were suddenly being seared off him by the magical green fire that licked at his skin, causing it to blister and boil; charring his hair and scalding his tongue and eyes.

As the fire made it's way across Riku's entire body, he could just barely hear Maleficent's gentle murmurs over the sound of his own gasping. Her repeated mantra burying itself into Riku's heart, using the pain from the fire as a digging tool. The purposeful emphasis of certain words, trying to make sure Riku's attention never strayed.

"SORA and his friends took what we needed from you. SORA fought against you and Kairi over the heart of a pointless puppet. SORA has abandoned you."

Riku tried unsuccessfully to let his mind go blank. He didn't need or want the hag to tell him what Sora did or didn't do. She hadn't even been there to know what Sora had said. It had been his fault for being too weak. It had been his fault for staying too long and letting Sora get the better of him instead of just grabbing Pinocchio and leaving when he had the chance.

And if that weren't enough, once all the fabric was gone from his body, and he was no longer able to stand against the pain, her hands, like ice, untouched by the flame, would lay his now limp, quivering body, face up, on the ground.

As much as he hated her for it, her ice cold hands provided relief from the devastating heat of the blaze engulfing him, leaving snowy trails of unblemished skin wherever her hands caressed him.

This was how she teased him. Her light touches, using only her fingers, sent shocks of welcomed cold across his body, but her hands never provided enough coverage to combat the sensation of being burned alive.

As much as he hated himself for it, that included when her icy touch brought his boiling skin such pleasure, her gentle strokes were enough to bring him to orgasm.

"I can heal you. I can save you. I will give you what you need." Maleficent's new mantra riding out the painful bout of overstimulation with his shuddering body.

Once satisfied with her handiwork, she waved the fire away from the rest of his body, leaving him naked, shaking, and vulnerable on the hard tile of the floor. Usually at this point, she would send him to his chambers to get dressed. This time, instead, his view of the steepled ceiling above him slowly faded into the dark abyss before him, and the floor of the castle returned to the rough, sandy rock of the walkway.

The Realm of Darkness.

Gingerly, Riku stood up, rubbing at his somehow still tender skin.

Her green flames had never left any physical evidence behind, yet somehow, Riku's skin always seemed to retain the memory of the pain and it would sometimes take weeks for his painfully sensitive skin to fully recover.

Once he dealt with the cloud of heartless that surrounded him upon standing, Riku had a moment to process what just happened. He could hear Maleficent's voice whispering through his head. His strangely sensitive skin could still recognize the points of ice where her fingers had danced across his skin. And with every passing second, it seemed his discomfort was drawing in more and more heartless. He tried calling out to the voice for help, but it, not nearly concerned enough to have just witnessed the terror he had been put through yet again, just told him to look within. So he did. And felt a new kind of relief. Somehow, he found Sora once again. Sora was with Kairi, talking. They were both safe. They were both alive. They were just standing, talking.

"No matter how deep the darkness, a light shines within." Sora was saying.

Riku knew better than to think he had any light left in him, but according to the voice, his heart had won the battle against the darkness, so maybe Sora was on to something.

Either way, it was enough for Riku. With the knowledge that Sora and Kairi were safe, he continued plodding on.

Eventually Riku finally did come across the owner of the squeaky voice of reason.

He turned out to be a small king from another world. King Mickey as he was called, had been watching both Riku and Sora in their travels from afar, unable to help them directly, but trying to contact Riku nonetheless.

Together they fought their way to the Door the King had told him about when he first heard his voice. Riku could see the darkness radiating out and upwards through the doors, but like the king warned, they wouldn't budge when he tried to close them on his own. But King Mickey did look out from their prison, gasped, and instead of telling Riku what he saw, he pushed Riku closer to the door to see what was happening for himself.

Looking through, Riku could see Sora standing above him, on some weird illusory version of Destiny Islands, listening to Ansem talk through Riku's body.

The stab of pain Riku felt while listening to his captor tell his best friend the story of his fall sent trembles down his spine, but if his new companion noticed, he didn't say anything. Though, in all likelihood, he probably didn't notice, seeing as he was jumping up and down, frown on his face, mumbling something about "Wrong Ansem", whatever that meant.

Sora was now acting strangely as well. They both looked as if something had changed about the appearance of the Riku in front of him.

"What is it? What are you gawking at?" Riku asked, focusing so hard on not letting the pain show through, that he sounded even more frustrated than he felt.

"That doesn't look like the Ansem I know. In fact I think it's an imposter!" The King squeaked in anger.

Confused, Riku looked up again, but sure enough, all he could see was his own body, now clashing with Sora within a toxic looking bubble that once resembled the heart of their island. Riku guessed 'imposter' was a good description, but he didn't get the whole 'Wrong Ansem' part.

"What do you mean? That is my body he is using to fight with Sora. Of course he wouldn't look like himself." Riku half whimpered, half snarled as he watched, as time and again, the brutish heartless attempted to squeeze the life out of his best friend, under the cold, hungry eyes of his worst nightmare.

"Do ya mean you can only see yourself in his appearance, Riku?" The small king questioned, his anger momentarily overpowered by something that would have reminded Riku of concern, if it were directed at anyone who deserved it.

"Do you mean you actually see someone else?" Riku countered, unable to keep his eyes away from the scene above him.

"Well, yeah…" The royal mouse's voice was full of wariness, before he perked up and continued with "But I guess what is important is that Sora is going to stop him!"

But then, as if just to prove him wrong, the island disappeared completely, and Sora was left falling through the abyss, down towards where Riku and the King stood.

Then the one voice that could make Riku feel like all his blood had been drained from his body, sucking his life, strength, and will to fight along with it, echoed through the darkness.

It spoke to Sora with the same poison it had spouted at Riku. About the never ending darkness and the tainted, finite existence of the heart. The words had easily snaked their way into the darker depths of his mind, resonating with his own vulnerabilities. But now Riku could see the fatal flaw in the voice's logic.

It spoke of not being able to spot a single speck of light within the dark abyss. However he was watching one of the brightest sources of light he knew of. Yet even as he watched, Sora's light began to dim. Of course Sora couldn't see his own light.

Watching as Sora began to fall faster, as he began to lose the fight with the suffocating abyss around him, Riku heard himself call out to his best friend.

"Giving up already? Come on, Sora. I thought YOU were stronger than that!" Riku heard himself shout the familiar call to arms. He wasn't even sure if Sora could hear him. Afterall, it wasn't like Riku had any physical voice to speak of anymore.

Yet sure enough, at his words, Sora seemed to kick into gear. Suddenly Sora was no longer falling, but flying within the abyss, leveling with the monstrosity that had once been Riku.

Sora fought against the monster like a champ. In fact, it wasn't until it was too late that Riku even realized Sora was losing.

It just happened so quickly. One minute, Sora looked like he was about to finish things for good. The next found Riku with barely enough time to register the maniacal chuckle, before watching as Sora's light was extinguished. The mouth of the monster swallowing the light like a druggie swallowing a pill.

And just like that, Sora was gone. Sora was dead, and with him the hope of the darkness ever being controlled again. Riku had even helped. Calling him to the battle that ended all hope.

The world started spinning as a sea of heartless launched from behind him, through the door and off to swallow what remained of the realm Riku had once called home.

Riku shut his entire being against the cacophony of it lost all sense of direction, Riku felt himself jostled, scratched, and beaten from every angle as he curled in on himself. But try as he might he couldn't block out the never ending laughter. The victory cry that spelled the end of all worlds.

Riku didn't even notice when the laughter morphed into his own strangled cries. Nor when he first felt solid ground against his side once again.

Slowly, Riku was able to regain control of his cracked and aching voice, willing it to silence. But when his ears were no longer filled by his own sobs, he found, instead of the sounds of the end times he was expecting, he only heard the familiar, deafening silence of the Realm of Darkness.

Riku tried to sit up and open his eyes, but, when doing both together brought on a headache, he took things one step at a time. Eventually he was sitting up, legs stretched out before him, arms behind him, still shaky, but strong enough to support his upper body.

Looking around, he concluded that he was, indeed, back in the depths of the Realm of Darkness. No royalty, no doors, no anything in sight.

Everything was the way it should be. Riku was alone in the darkness. Sora had won the battle. In fact, he had gotten to watch as Sora unknowingly called forth the light of Kingdom Hearts itself, powerful enough to not only destroy the Seeker of Darkness for good, but destroy all heartless in it's path. Of course, it had taken almost no time for the heartless to return, but it had sure been an impressive sight.

Even Riku himself hadn't escaped the sting of such a blinding light. It had winded him so badly, he'd had to take a moment to regain his footing before he could help Sora shut the door dividing their respective realms. Looking at Sora then, Riku had found the first moment of peace he could remember having since leaving the islands. His friends were safe. As long as Sora and Kairi were together, everything would be okay. The brightest light and the purest light Riku knew of, each looking out for and loving each other.

It had been after they closed the door that Riku had opted to travel on his own. King Mickey had wasted no time in talking about finding the Door to the Light. Riku had no interest in finding his way back to the Realm of Light, now. He was a creature of darkness afteral, and with his friends safe, they had no need for him.

Instead he had done his best to decline the King's suggestions in as polite and respectful a way possible, while never revealing his intent to just fade into darkness.

Eventually he had worn the King into accepting his propositions of separating. The problem then became trying to figure out just how one faded into darkness. Letting darkness consume you was easy. But that meant allowing the darkness to use his newly reaquired body as its vessel, and there was no way Riku was risking it again.

Eventually, Riku had begun to notice the lines of reality blurring around him. What semblance of time there was in the realm of darkness would seemingly stall one moment before skipping the next. And, as before, memories would creep up on him like the heartless he fought off, more out of habit and boredom than anything else. As time hobbled on, however, what was true memory and what was nightmare began to merge and shift.

Riku had avoided looking for Sora's light inside himself. It was fear of strengthening his attachment to his friends anymore than was already there and making it harder to fade away that usually stopped him.

But this time, he found himself doing so before he could stop. It took a little more time for him to find Sora this time. It was almost as if Sora was no longer really anywhere. But find him, he did. And when he did, Sora was having an uncharacteristically deep conversation with a stranger in a black cloak.

"People I miss..." Sora was saying, his face all confused for a split second before exploding with excitement.

"Riku! You mean Riku's here?!"

No. Riku wasn't wherever Sora was. Riku was deep within the Realm of Darkness, having lost so much strength, he couldn't even begin to stand.

But now Sora was looking for him. Not just running towards him, not talking with Kairi, but looking for him.

That changed everything.

Knowing Sora, he wouldn't give up searching until he found Riku. And there was no way Riku was going to risk either of his friends setting foot in this place if he could help it.

Of course now was the moment Riku finally felt himself let go. His exhaustion was pulling at his consciousness, and his heart had relaxed the moment he laid eyes on his best friend. Riku still held onto his light, however, and he found, as he left the waking realm altogether, that the darkness couldn't reach him. It had been a long while since Riku had banished his own internal light. There was no doubt about that. But through Sora, he had the brightest of lights within reach. His best friend was coming towards him, glowing with his light, looking for Riku.


End file.
